WWII Journal: Medway man survived several battles in Germany

Editor's note: This is one in a series of profiles of World War II veterans, published on Mondays.

By Jeff Malachowski

Daily News Staff

Cranston Rogers calls his time fighting on the Siegfried Line along the border of France and Germany during World War II "the worst days of my life."

Under a nearly constant barrage of artillery fire from Nazi soldiers in the fall and winter of 1944, Rogers, and his fellow soldiers in the 103rd Infantry Division faced the possibility of being wounded or killed every second of every day during battle.

"The casualty rate was pretty severe," said Rogers, who was drafted at age 19 into the Army shortly after graduating from high school in Orlando, Florida. "We lost a lot of men. Those were the worst days. The Germans, no question, were committed to keeping us out of Germany. Fatigue was a problem. It was just traumatic. The shelling was constant."

During one firefight on the Siegfried Line, a line of defensive forces and tank barriers stretching 390 miles along the German border, Rogers was discussing strategy with a soldier standing next to him when the soldier fell back, holding his mouth. The soldier had been shot, but survived.

"He had to deal with losing a tooth," said Rogers, who keeps three pieces of concrete from the Siegfried Line in a German ashtray on his living room table. "I was lucky to survive those things. A little bit this way, a little bit that way and I could’ve been killed."

Known by family and friends as "Chan," Rogers, an all-state high school halfback in Florida, dodged death again while his unit attacked a schoolhouse where more than 100 Nazi soldiers were stationed.

In front of the school was an eight-foot high wall of crumbled bricks. On the front lines of the attack, Rogers tripped and fell while running up the mountain of bricks while two American officers were shot and killed by Nazi troops on the other side.

"The Germans were setting us up," he said as he thumbed through pictures of himself donning his uniform.

As Rogers sits in the office of his Medway home, which is adorned with plaques celebrating his military and civil engineering careers, he remarks how lucky he is that he wasn't killed, a fate many at the infamous Dachau concentration camp couldn't avoid, he says.

As a 20-year-old sergeant with the 45th Infantry Division on April 29, 1945, Rogers and his unit liberated the prisoners at the concentration camp where more than 30,000 people had been tortured and killed.

Before entering Dachau, Rogers had never heard of a concentration camp and was astounded to see the condition of the prisoners.

Page 2 of 3 - "It was unbelievable," he said. "We couldn’t imagine any civilized group could do this to people. It was difficult for me to fathom how the Germans could do this."

One of Rogers’ first missions in Dachau was to shake down houses to find and capture German soldiers. But instead, he found several Dutch prisoners hiding in the basement of one of the homes.

"They were overwhelmed," he says with a smile. "One grabbed me around the neck and kissed me."

Nearly 70 years after liberating the camp, Rogers, three other veterans and three survivors of concentration camps joined 19 students and faculty members from the College of the Ozarks in Point Lookout, Missouri, to visit Dachau. Rogers provided a first-hand account to the students and teachers of the cruelty that had been inflicted there.

"I wanted to get a better feel for where we were and what happened," Rogers said of the site, which has been converted into a museum.

At the conclusion of the war in Europe, Rogers was set to be shipped to Japan. The dropping of the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki ended the war, and his deployment was cancelled.

"I was not happy to know I had to go to the Pacific after fighting in Europe," he said. "We probably saved more lives, including Japanese civilians, than if we invaded the place."

Upon returning home, Rogers stayed in the Army Reserve until 1978 where he rose to the rank of colonel. Rogers attended and graduated from The Citadel and would later come to Boston, where his experience overseeing a battalion of men during World War II helped him during a nearly 50-year career as a civil engineer. He retired in 2002.

Some of his major accomplishments include being the chief engineer of the Dewey Square tunnel project and designing the tunnels built under the operating rail lines at South Station during the Big Dig.

"My service improved my own ability later in life to be effective," said Rogers, the father of seven boys and one girl. "I don’t regret it in anyway. I learned leadership."

Married to his wife Francine for the past 46 years, Rogers stays in contact with members of the 103rd Infantry Division living across the country. He also serves as the president of the 103rd World War II Infantry Division Association.

While arthritis in his shoulders, knees and elbows makes it difficult for him to maneuver around his home, Rogers keeps his mind sharp by staying current on world news and politics, and writing.

"I still consider myself very fortunate to be doing well," he said.

Page 3 of 3 - Jeff Malachowski can be reached at 508-490-7466 or jmalachowski@wickedlocal.com. Follow him on Twitter @JmalachowskiMW.